The Fish House at Fistral: Epic Seafood in Newquay

With some fierce recommendations from family friends, we headed over to The Fish House at Fistral the other week…

Perched on the beautiful Fistral beach (one of my favourite Newquay beaches), The Fish House is an award-winning seafood restaurant run by chef, Paul Harwood, who previously worked for 14 years at Rick Stein’s in Padstow.

I always say how much of a shame it is that I rarely visit Newquay. In the shoulder months I really love it as a place to visit; so many stunning beaches (we particularly love Mawgan Porth on the outskirts!) and great places to eat, and there’s always something going on event-wise.

Fistral is a beautiful stretch of white sand on Newquay’s North-facing coast, making it an incredibly popular spot for surfing and for sunset watching (Niki, Frankie and I witnessed a particularly beautiful one last summer!). It’s also home to a variety of events throughout the year including surf competitions, monthly gigs and the Boardmasters Beach Sessions in August.

From the beach, you can also go for a stunning coast walk along the South West Coast Path, either to the West around Pentire head or to the East around Newquay’s headland (where the infamous Headland Hotel sits). It’s a great place to take the dogs, as the beach is dog-friendly all year round too.

We went to The Fish House with Alex’s family, who kindly treated us to a delicious lunch here a couple of days after Christmas. It’s a cosy little restaurant (open for lunch and evening meals), with not more than 7 tables overall, and with all the driftwood decor and nautical themed accessories, it feels almost like the snug cabin of a ship. All that’s needed is a porthole or two!

For starters we decided to opt for the seafood sharing platter (normally shared between 2, but we were sharing between 5) along with the fish tacos (normally a ‘light lunch’ small plate, but you can order these as starters too). This was the perfect amount to share between 5; if not a little too filling!

We were all completely blown away by the quality of the seafood and the incredible flavours in each of the dishes. I’ve never had fish tacos before, and everyone agreed they were super tasty. The sharing platter was so so good and I think I could have eaten the whole thing to myself as a main course to be honest! With crab cakes, shell-on prawns, salt & pepper squid with a homemade aleoli, and a crab and olive pate served with bread, I was in my element.

For main course, Alex had to go for the seafood linguine (his favourite dish!) which again was seasoned/flavoured perfectly and he loved it. (For context, he is a big foodie and usually has plenty of critique!). Meanwhile I had the mussels in a white wine sauce with fries, and the others went for the hake dish on a potato rosti (which looked delicious but super rich!).

We also all shared a couple of portions of their hand-cut chips. I’d definitely recommend getting these if you go; I didn’t take a picture but trust me, they were super thick and tasty.

After lunch we were all extremely full, but with a selection of Callestick Farm ice creams on offer, we couldn’t easily decline! Alex went for an affogato with vanilla ice cream, while myself and Alex’s mum both had the same – one scoop of butterscotch ice cream and one scoop of lemon & elderflower sorbet. Both were delicious!

Overall we had a really enjoyable meal; it’s rare that we can all agree on the quality of a place but we were all really impressed. The service was a little slow (considering the small size of the place and the amount of waiters available), but we couldn’t fault the food. Amazing!